These are good songs, but they're so boldly signposted, you can see them miles away. [May 2011, p.85]

Coracle is more about a kind of glittering ambiance, one forged in a liminal space between drone, electronic Krautrock and the heady shoegaze of Ulrich Schnauss. [Nov 2011, p.107]

Trent is as solid as an anvil in his straightman's role, while Hearst is a real firecracker. [Sep 2012, p.85]

Brave, challenging and arrestingly original. [Mar 2016, p.79]

These five expansive tracks forgo punk rock sloganeering in favour of themes of mystery, sorcery and spiritual jubilation. [Jun 2017, p.34]

"Shock Out" and "Money Machine" are straightforward exercises in the sort of hellfire dancehall The Bug does so well, but there's a restraint here too, best seen in the haunted heartbroken "War." [Sep 2018, p.35]

The monotone vocal diatribes can be a little waffly, but the urgent, Bloc Party-esque thrust of "Dig In" and the addictive synthpop throb of "Prism" are incisive backdrops that keep you engaged, if not completely converted. [Oct 2020, p.32]

This is a nourishing and deeply meditative record. [Oct 2021, p.27]

They appear to have moved back into full-on Afrika 70 revivalism. [Sep 2012, p.73]

Sometimes, beats and basslines are distinct; other times, as on "Mysteries" and "Lighthouse," you just get a sense of them, as structure dissolving into mist. [Oct 2015, p.78]

A darkly impassioned mix of hip hop, art rock and electronics that connects to indigenous street music as well as to Gil Scott-Heron, The Ruts and TV On The Radio. [Feb 2016, p.84]

She approaches the material with understated expressiveness. [Sep 2020, p.32]

"Daddy Pop" has a Queen-like Break; "Jughead", post-Bomb Squad production. "Money Don't Matter 2 Night" is more subtly impressive. .... B-Sides plus intinerant sessions yielding 33 unreleased tracks. [Dec 2023, p.51]

You couldn't imagine anyone else pulling all this off with such grace and style. [Jun 2010, p.96]

Lyrically, there's little to cling onto, but it's not inconceivable a song like 'Soldier's Grin' could see them follow labelmates The Shins into indie ubiquity. [Sep 2008, p.115]

Sometimes, More is more. [Nov 2014, p.73]

Guest spots from vocalists Andrea Galaxy and Jessy Lanza make explicit the R&B influence, but the most emotive, intimate moments come when Abdel-Hamid makes her synths sing to themselves. [Jul 2017, p.32]

McCraven's label debut deploys his own musicians with Horace Silver and the rest, giving a steamy hip-hop stutter to Blakey beats already halfway there, and letting the aching melody of Kenny Burrell's "Autumn In New York" simmer under new rhythmic cross-winds. [Dec 2021, p.31]

Far from reining it in on his major label debut, he's stretching out even further. [May 2022, p.36]

The pair's keen rhythmic sense makes even the unusual palatable. [Review of the Year 2023, p.30]

A couple of tame moments should have hit the cutting room floor, but this is otherwise flawless. [Jul 2011, p.88]

An unusually exciting attempt to revitalise past glories. [Oct 2002, p.111]

The instrumental palette is more wide-ranging in a subtler, more subversive manner. [Apr 2004, p.96]

It all sounds like The Beta Band swapping confrontation for contentment. [Apr 2002, p.93]

"Ishadlak Ya Khey," featuring Doueh's son Hamdan Bamaar on full drum kit, and pops busting out some flange-soaked solos, is a pleasingly noisy, impolite fusion. [Aug 2011, p.87]

A couple of bratty, clunky bursts in the vein of the self-titled first album spoil the mood slightly. [May 2015, p.72]

While "Neon Dad" proves their aptitude for the same sort of psych-pop that Black Moth Super Rainbow use to free minds, "House of Glass" and "Crapture" suggest Holy Fuck are happier putting their rubbery grooves and vintage gear under serious duress. [Jul 2016, p.74]

Certainly it is a record of two halves, its first batch of corroded box jams smothered in hiss, including two listless cuts with Sampha. [Jan 2021, p.21]

An exceptional, disarming collection of mutant electronic music. It’s a dense, disorienting 40 minutes of hyper-punctual edits, very tonally bright and often overwhelming; a sensorial bombardment. [Jun 2022, p.29]

A comeback of unexpected maturity and power. [Jun 2006, p.110]

Breakup Song is all right, but ultimately, it's an unnecessary listen. [Nov 2012, p.72]

Recalls Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra in the way it mingles dark and light, hard and soft, innocence and experience. [Feb 2006, p.80]

Some of it is as good as anything Diamond has done.

The Haunted Man she's exorcised some of those ghosts and gone some way to becoming her own woman. [Nov 2012, p.70]

The playful tumbles of verbiage are as central to the group's sonic identity as the key components of its baroque power pop. [Nov 2019, p.28]

Nothing is too self-consciously retro. [Feb 2013, p.71]

His partnership with young producer Benge has seen Foxx release his best music since the glory days of early Ultravox and debut album Metamatic, and Evidence is even more brimful of sci-fi sensuality than last year's The Shape Of Things. [Mar 2013, p.72]

It's all accessible as the countryside, with a sweeping sense of the arcadian. [Jul 2015, p.76]

Their music rarely sounds like the blues: "Let Me Get By" is a fiery funk waltz, "In Every Heart" a 6/8 Stax-styled ballad with woozy horns, while the blue-eyed soul of "Crying Over You" segues into a flute-led raga. [Mar 2016, p.81]

A fuzz-tinted spaghetti-western vibe holds it all together. [May 2016, p.75]

The musical backing is politer than the lyrics, but it can't altogether blunt the boldness of their discourse. [Jul 2018, p.30]

Animal Companionship is a more sombre affair than it initially sounds as Ashworth uses animal love as a lens through which to dissect heartbreak and loss, broken lives and creeping morality. [Nov 2018, p.23]

Now adds a shimmer of spiritual awaking to the mix. ... An energising release. [Mar 2019, p.27]

The allusive, poetic intimacy of songs and singer are enriched, while an atmospheric haze keeps the concept loose. [Sep 2019, p.34]

Arnold's voice is as rich as ever on this upbeat, triumphant return to the spotlight, crystal clear and cutting straight to the heart. [Sep 2019, p.23]

A thrilling racket it is too, the quartet achieving a winning balance of improv and melodic suss on a bunch of hairy psychedelic jams. [Oct 2019, p.26]

While her low-slung, downtempo default doesn't always hit the mark, though, she dissects every lyrical twist of hope and disgust on a fine version of Neil Yong's "On The Beach." [Jul 2020, p.30]

A Small Death charts her return to functionality with eloquence and real panache. [Aug 2020, p.28]

Rancid's "Olympia, WA" sounds like an Americana roadtrip rebel anthem with Old Crow Medicine Show's Ketch Secor in the passenger seat; Harry Styles' "Sunflower, Vol. 6" gets redone as acoustic lovestruck magic. [Oct 2020, p.39]

Clearly, the source material is strong, but there’s also an emotional unity of purpose that works in the covers’ favour. [Jun 2021, p.33]

A rich, impassioned set of songs. [Sep 2021, p.24]

Bloodlines and geography figure into every NMAs album, but on Set Sail, Luther and Cody Dickinson make family and setting the conjoined theme. [Mar 2022, p.32]

Sounds a lot more like Haines yammering on about end-of-days cults while Buck ditches his customary Rickenbacker jingle-jangle for brute force Raw Power stormtrooping. [Nov 2022, p.29]

"Illusion Pt II" is a deceptively buoyant album opener. ... Album highlight "Sniveller" kicks off with Dry Cleaning-esque new wave swagger before unexpected backing vocals from JG's Lan McArdle deliver a heart-rush. [Feb 2023, p.36]

There's always been a hazy and reflective feel to her songs, but despite the title, her fourth is Power's most resolute set yet. [Jul 2023, p.22]

Their first LP is an imaginative amalgam of electronic pop, avant noise, psych-folk, freeform jazz and kosmische on a panoramic scale, which both delights and surprises. [Oct 2024, p.37]

They show little interest in shaking up the formula they established with 1982’s mighty Roman Gods. And that’s just fine given the lusty energy that frontman Peter Zaremba and guitarist Keith Streng muster up on the memorably greasy “The Consequences”, the self-explanatory “Wah Wah Power” and other time-defying displays of undimmed bravado. [Jan 2025, p.34]

A beautifully composed record that feels alive with texture. [Review of the Year 2025, p.23]

Rosen and Nicolaus stride forth as songsmiths of a much more assured vintage, harp, piano, brass and chocolatey harmonies coming together in vividly orchestrated numbers. [Nov 2008, p.94]

It may be OR's best album yet. [Oct 2016, p.36]

It’s a brave, bonkers, often beautiful, sometimes haunting and occasionally ridiculous album.

If rock is indeed dead, then albums like thus are its extended intelligent coda, its sustained afterburn. [Jan 2012, p.82]

Stewart's preoccupation--narcissism, sexuality, body horror--translate into a sort of febrile synth-pop, dotted with orchestral excursions and abrupt electronics. [Mar 2012, p. 107]

There's a spiritual quality to these streams-of-conscious compositions, which sound open-ended as though she's posing questions to the woods around her. [Feb 2019, p.34]

Auto-Tuned electro-soul, reggae-lite rhythms and deceptively political lyrics are key motifs here, although Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs lends some grungey thrust to "Fall First." [Nov 2022, p.36]

While Lanegan could sing the Richard Stilgoe songbook and still enthral, there remains a hint of contrivance about Soulsavers' self-consciously cinematic, grungey trip hop. [Sep 2009, p.95]

Ghost's raps are more Staten Island than Sicily. [Jul 2013, p.76]

This audio companion to Springsteen's upcoming autobiography serves as a decent best-of. [Nov 2016, p.52]

Demolished thoughts is his strongest solo collection to date. [Jun 2011, p.91]

Their conceptual hinterland is sometimes more interesting than their clobbering racket, but both are exhilarating in places. [Mar 2021, p.29]

The sinister slow-burn of "Application Apparatus" and Tom Tom Club-worthy quirk of "Trullo" are further indications of their rude state of health. [Dec 2021, p.31]

The likes of "The West End" and "Thinking About You" are unobjectionable, but mostly have the effect of reminding that there are Steve Earle albums you could be playing. [Nov 2010, p.94]

A supremely sassy swansong. [Jan 2012, p.90]

While James Murphy's homages are leavened with irony and discrete heartache, Dear is more po-faced than pomo. [Sep 2012, p.75]

It's never a challenging listen, evoking distant, blinking skyscrapers, buzzing streetlights and echoes of the previous night's warehouse rave. [Mar 2015, p.78]

Simultaneously rooted and rootless, we might call the results Otherworld Music. [Feb 2018, p.35]

As Gerrard's voice recedes into the silence, we're left with the sense that the hungers for mystery and transcendence this music explores could be as fundamental to us as it was to those who partied so hard so long ago. [Dec 2018, p.32]

Delights and distresses, packed with musical flourishes and finely drawn lyrics. [Nov 2020, p.33]

Marnia tones down the more extreme histrionics that made earlier albums and acquired taste. [May 2013, p.78]

This is Raum's greatest gift—it's not just a trip to the past but a truly worthy addition to one of the most important but overwhelming catalogues in electronic music. [Apr 2022, p.35]

[Broder's] bodged tracks are the equivalent of Napoleon Dynamite's hybrid animal, the "liger", with beats that kick like a flogged mule. [Jun 2005, p.114]

More, and even better, of the same--one of the dead-cert Albums Of The Year. [Album of the Month, Apr 2005, p.96]

Their seventh album is the soundtrack to a full-length film made by singer Tim Rutili but comfortably works on its own, sounding genuinely unlike anyone else - every song contains a surprise, however minor. [Nov 2009, p. 83]

Calexico are back, but this time they’re travelling all over the map. Carried to Dust is a quietly persuasive record.

It's a sound that devotees of 'Crazy Horse' or 'My Morning Jacket' will find conspicuously pleasing, but fans of Band of Horses might just be disappointed. [Dec 2007, p.84]

There are moments of terrific turbulence, solemn quietness and some sadness, but the collection eventually lights on safe harbor. [Apr 2012, p.70]

It's clear The Essex Green have joined The New Pornographers and The Shins among indie-pop's most insinuating and accomplished bands. [Jun 2006, p.100]

[A] remarkable album. [Jun 2007, p.91]

Mailman offers an insider's glimpse into his beginnings--a spirited 1970s club set and a priceless disc of stripped-down, gloss-free demos. [Jan 2012, p.96]

With Bergsman's dourly dreamy voice and wistful songcraft, it's recognisably indiepop, but sent delightfully pie-eyed on Blur Hawaiians. [Dec 2012, p.77]

From the Ground Up takes a heartland rock template and imbues it with tougher, weather-beaten elements asking big questions. [Apr 2013, p.72]

With a live '70s R&B sound fuelled by flower power and, in "Star Now" and "Satellites," some excellent songs, Bilal is as focused as he's ever been. [Oct 2015, p.73]

The strongest songs on Dungeness have Trembling Bells playing at a fierce peak. ... Sometimes, though, things don't quite cohere. [May 2018, p.34]

These 10 art-pop and jazz-inclined abstractions are as elusive as they are instantly likeable, slipping away from definition even as you're listening via sweet melodic overplaying, elegant spaces and meandering/urgent grooves. [May 2019, p.32]

An album s indebted to garage as it is to pop. [Sep 2019, p.27]

Several songs that aim for Springsteenian grandeur but land nearer to John Mellencamp before he dropped the Cougar. Thankfully, Goldsmith's level of craft elsewhere means there's still plenty here to savour. [Nov 2020, p.29]

There’s no brave new frontier here – and perhaps in these strange times many of us don’t really want to be challenged. Rather, these simple pleasures, full of reassurance and a satisfying indulgence, will keep us warm while we adjust to the ‘new normal’ – whatever that may eventually turn out to be.

It's when Slowthai turns the lens inward on the soulful "NHS" and loved-up "Feel Away" - featuring James Blake and Mount Kimbie - that he proves himself something of an original. [Mar 2021, p.37]